中国文明源远流长，延绵千年而未有断绝，本书阐释了造就中国这个超大规模文明型国家的内生动力，从历史脉络着手，提出“中国韧性”作为贯穿中国历代政治格局和思想文化的主线，并认为这一意识亦是维系中华民族共同体意识的重要纽带。本书在对比中西文明不同特征及其成因的基础上，通过考察几个重要的历史节点和时期——殷周之变、周秦之变、唐宋之变，由元而清以及古今之变，来梳理“大一统”国家的历史脉络，进而阐释中国特色社会主义制度和国家治理体系深厚的历史底蕴，为坚守“国土不可分、国家不可乱、民族不可散、文明不可断”的共识底线提供有益支持。

本书系统梳理中国历代生活方式、价值观念和思维方式，是一本优秀的中国历史文化通识读本，内容深入简出，有趣味有分量。

李勇刚，中央社会主义学院中华文化教研部中国传统文化教研室主任、副教授。主讲《中国古代思想文化史》《中华文化要义：大一统》《弘扬中华文化 增强文化自信》《中华文化经典与领导干部人文素养》《中国古代政德修养与治国理政》等课程，主持“如何给统战干部讲清楚中华文化”等统战高端智库课题研究。近年来在《人民日报》《学习时报》《中央社会主义学院学报》等发表多篇文化方面的文章或论文。

Introduction ／ I
Chapter One: Chinese and Western Civilizations: Concentric Circles and Jigsaws ／ 001
1.1 Division vs. Unification
1.2 The West: Oceans and Centrifugal Forces
1.3 China: Farming and Centripetal Forces
1.4 Concentric Circles vs. Jigsaws
Chapter Two: From the Shang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty: Retreat of Shangdi and Prominence of “Virtues” ／ 013
2.1 Yin Shang: The Rapid Demise of a Powerful Dynasty
2.2 Shangdi: Sources of Shang’s Destiny of Heaven
2.3 Virtue： Discovery of the Zhou Dynasty
2.4 People-oriented: Essence of the Rule by Virtue
2.5 The Patriarchal Clan System: Maintaining Stability of the Political Community
2.6 Feudalism: Initial Construction of a Large Country
2.7 The Tianxia System and Civilization of Rituals and Music
2.8 The Tianxia System vs. Greek City-State Politics
Chapter Three: From the Zhou Dynasty to the Qin and Han Dynasties: Failure of Feudalism and Establishment of Counties ／ 045
3.1 Total Collapse of Feudal Order
3.2 Background of Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought: Centralization of Power and Escalation of War
3.3 Confucius: The Restoration of Rituals and Music, and Cultivation of Scholars (I)
3.4 Confucius: The Concentric Circles Structure of Benevolence (II)
3.5 Mozi: Equal Love and Organizational Building
3.6 Laozi: Self-control of Power
3.7 Legalism: Strict “Performance Management”
3.8 The Qin Dynasty: The First Unified State with a System of Prefectures and Counties
3.9 The Systematic Process of “Great Unification”
3.10 The Han Dynasty: Dong Zhongshu and Prevalence of Confucianism
3.11 Development of Enlightenment and Cultivation of Customs
3.12 Integration Degree: Qin and Han Dynasties vs. the Roman Empire
Chapter Four: Changes between the Tang and Song Dynasties: End of In??uential Clan Society and Rise of Civilian Society ／ 101
4.1 Rise of Influential Clan Society and Its Influence
4.2 Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern Dynasties: Era of Great Division
4.3 Sui and Tang Dynasties: Integrating Grassland and Farming
4.4 The “Terminator” of Influential Clan Society: The Imperial Examination System
4.5 Scholar-officials and Emperor Ruling Country Together
4.6 Third-party Observations on the Imperial Examination System
4.7 Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty and Reorganization of Civilian Society
4.8 The Ming Dynasty under the Early Modern World System
Chapter Five： From the Yuan to Qing Dynasties: An Era into “Great China” ／ 155
5.1 South-North Relations: Farming and Nomadism
5.2 Great Contribution of Nomadic People
5.3 The Yuan Dynasty: The “Great China” Era Opened in Full Swing
5.4 The Ming Dynasty: Maintenance and Deepening of “Great China”
5.5 The Qing Dynasty: Full Integration of “Great China”
5.6 Different Fates of the Qing Dynasty and Two Cotemporaneous Empires
Summary ／ 189
Postscript ／ 207